Hartford Women: Final Challenge For Penwell

WEST HARTFORD — Kelly and Kim Penwell had always played on the same basketball teams. The same softball teams. The sisters from Meriden have always been close.

So when Kim went to Bentley in 1989, Kelly, a year younger, thought about going to Bentley, too.

She instead opted for the University of Hartford. Kelly, a senior team captain, is glad she did.

"It was a tough decision," Kelly said. "I decided -- I mean, we decided -- that I should go to a different school, to become my own player and my own person. And it worked out."

Kelly, a 5-foot-9 guard/forward, and center Maureen Broderick (5-9) are the only seniors on Hartford's young team.

The Hawks were 11-16 (6-8, fifth in the North Atlantic Conference) last season under first-year coach Allison Jones. But there were hopeful signs:

A two-point loss to Louisiana State.

A first-time victory over Maine.

Six conference victories, the most by a Hartford women's team.

Eleven victories, the most for Hartford since moving to Division I.

And this season, Penwell says, she's finally "back to normal" as a player. Playing for coach Mark Schmidt, who resigned after the 1991-92 season (9-19), Penwell said she lost confidence. "The style we play now is more my style," Penwell said. "I went through a really tough time my freshman year on the court. It's like night and day now."

But Penwell adjusted. She averaged less than three points a game as a freshman, but started the final 12 games.

She has averaged 11 points a game the past two seasons and is the leading returning scorer after the departure of center Mary Jane Besselink (1,205 career points) and all-time steals leader

Lana Thomas.

She can handle the pressure. Penwell scored 1,472 points for Platt High School in Meriden, and remains the school's all-time scoring leader. She was All-State in basketball, soccer and softball.

"I know I have to score a little bit more than last year. I have to rebound more," Penwell said. "I'm just not used to it. After I take a shot, I still run down to the other end of the court. I'm still going the wrong way."

Penwell also worries that, as captain, she isn't vocal enough. It's not her style, but she's working on that.

Jones isn't concerned.

"She sets the tone in practice with her work ethic," Jones said. "I don't think that's such a bad thing. It's harder to lead by example than it is to talk about it."

These days, Penwell, an elementary education major with a 3.3 grade-point average, is busy: basketball, a student-teaching position at Emerson-Williams Elementary School in Wethersfield and three night classes. She's teaching a unit on Pueblo Indians to second-graders, and she loves every minute.

"Some of the kids are such little clowns," she said. "I can't laugh at some of things they do, because they'll keep doing it. But while I'm yelling at them, I'm laughing inside."

Kelly and Kim's paths diverged when it came to colleges -- and careers. Kim, who graduated from Bentley in the spring, works in the finance department of a large company in Nashua, N.H. Kelly plans to be a teacher and a basketball coach.

Kelly remembered another factor in her decision to go to Hartford three years ago: She wouldn't have to play against her sister. Assumption, which plays Bentley in the Northeast-10 Conference, had expressed interest in Kelly, but she said she felt as if she couldn't go there and play basketball.

"That would have been really weird," she said. "Like what if I had to run down the court and not say anything to her? I couldn't do it. [Kim] would be very serious about playing, but I couldn't do it.